The Knowlton Literary Festival is back for its 12th edition with a fully in-person event running from Oct. 20 to 24 at the community centre in Knowlton. 

It’s the first time the festival is taking place in-person since the start of the pandemic, having switched to virtual mode during the last couple of years. 

This year’s festival will be a mix of local and national authors, meet and greets, a poetry workshop, and more. 

“It feels great to be back. We’re a little anxious of course, but it will be good to see faces again, and as they say, bums in chairs,” said Jane Livingston, president of the Knowlton Literary Association. 

Organized by volunteers in the local community, the Knowlton Literary Association wanted to have a little something for everybody to enjoy, including its annual workshop. 

“This year it will be a poetry workshop given by Steve Luxton from the Eastern Townships and that will be a two session workshop. We’ve got authors coming from all across the country,” noted Livingston. “We have Louise Penny who will be with us. She will in fact be interviewing a very well known mystery writer by the name of Peter Robinson.”

Livingston said that one author in particular that she is excited to welcome to the festival is David A. Robertson.

“He has been a youth-adult writer. He is from the Cree Nation in Winnipeg. (…) “But he has just come out with a new novel The Theory of Crows, which I think is largely autobiographical about his growing up as a First Nations, the influence his father had on him, and the times they spent together in nature,” explained Livingston. “He will not only be talking to adults at the community centre, but he’s going to Knowlton Academy and Massey-Vanier.”

Local authors include Peter McAuslan, founder of McAuslan Brewery, Maurice Crossfield, Maria Cordero, and others. Health editor for the “Globe and Mail” André Picard will also do a presentation. 

“He (Picard) will be of particular interest to many of the seniors in Knowlton. His focus has largely been on the, what some would say, the appalling care our seniors are given in the senior citizen homes across the country,” mentioned Livingston. “He has been quite critical of the lack of care and he has written a book to that affect.”

This year’s festival will also welcome back the meet and greets with local authors. 

“The first meet and greet will be Thursday night and it will be held at the book store (Brome Lake Books), that’s where all our local authors will be. It will be an informal session, wine and cheese, you will be able to come in, meet individually with the authors, and they will be promoting their books and talking about their inspiration,” said Livingston. 

A new addition to this year’s festival is spoken word, better known as SLAM poetry, with presentations from two women coming from Montreal. 

“The two of them are going to give a bit of a presentation and explanation as to what spoken word is. It’s not just poetry on a page, it’s not strictly just reading poetry, it’s a performance art,” noted Livingston. 

Tickets for the Knowlton Literary Festival are officially on sale. 

Ticket prices, the full programming, and information on the Knowlton Literary Festival can be found at knowltonliteraryfestival.ca

Listen to the full interview below: